Laboratory Reporting of Staphylococcus aureus with Reduced Susceptibility to Vancomycin in United States Department of Veterans Affairs Facilities1

A national survey was sent to all appropriate Veterans Health Administration (VA) medical facilities asking about the ability to test for Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin (SARV) (MICs >4 microg/mL). For those with this ability, a request was made for the number of patients having SARV isolated during a 1-year period. Nineteen patients from eight sites across the country had isolation of SARV. Of these, MicroScan (Dade Behring, Inc, MicroScan Division, West Sacramento, CA) technology was used for 17 patients, Vitek (Hazelwood, MO) was used for 1 of the remaining 2 patients, and E-test (AB Biiodisk North America, Inc, Piscataway, NJ) for the other. All patients with this organism had microbiology testing done onsite in the reporting VA facility's College of American Pathologists-approved laboratory. For comparison, similar data were obtained for a 1-year period 2 years prior to the current survey; seven patients from four sites were verified to have a SARV. Between the two survey periods the reported cases of SARV increased 170%, indicating a need for continued surveillance and potentially a need to initiate a collection of isolates for further analysis.